This article will focus on creative ways to start an online shop that will complement your brick and mortar store. These unconventional approaches will spark your customers’ curiosity, drive engagement, and boost sales. Your one-of-a-kind strategy will also separate you from your competitors and establish your brand as an industry trendsetter.

How to Take Your Store Online

Before you can come up with an all-original idea, you need to set the foundation for adding an online store.

Any online store must have the following:

Domain name – This the name of your website and your URL (secondo loro interazioni con le vostre operazioni di marketing. wikipedia.org, wordpress.com, ecc.). It should be something that’s easy for customers to remember, and ideally a .com domain.

Web host – This is the service that enables your website to be accessible online. GoDaddy, HostGator, and DreamHost are all examples of companies that can host your website. Many web hosts also sell domain names.

Website builder – A website builder will help you create and design the different pages on your website. Options range from very easy drag-and-drop builders like Weebly to more complicated but powerful platforms like Squarespace and WordPress.

Payment gateway – This is a system that enables you toaccept credit cardsand allows your customers to input sensitive credit card information on a secure page.

While you need each of these things to have an online store, you don’t necessarily need to purchase each independently. Per esempio, Weebly and Squarespace both include shopping cart and payment gateway add-ons. Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce are full-scale shopping cart platforms that let you manage inventory, acquisti, returns, e altro ancora.

Get these basics in order, and then look at our suggestions below to come up with your own unconventional website.

5 Creative Approaches to Adding an Online Store

1. Use Your Brick & Mortar Store as a “Showroom”, But Sell Online

Online shopping offers convenience, while shopping in-store lets customers see, feel, and try out items. You can offer the best of both worlds by using your brick & mortar store as a “showroom” and selling your products or services online. With this setup, customers can visit your store to test drive your products. They can then whip out their mobile devices or use in-store kiosks to place an order.

Customers won’t be walking out of your store with any merchandise, but the products will be delivered to their doorstep a day or two later. Following this model, menswear e-tailerBonobohas “guideshops” where shoppers can consult with employees to find the right size, Colore, fit, and fabric. Casper Mattresses also does something similar. The online company started setting up brick & mortar stores throughout the country where shoppers can “book a nap“, but most of the sales are still done on their website.

Bonobos guideshop where you can try out items, but can’t bring them home. Fonte: New York Times

This concept offers many interesting opportunities that can drive sales. Instead of having shelves occupy space, you can dedicate certain areas for interactive experiences. Per esempio, you can set up a spot in your store where customers can test power tools, take selfies, or even play games. Your storesells experienceinstead of products, and the transactions happen seamlessly online.

2. Accept Custom Orders Online

Nei dintorni di 4 in 10 shoppersare interested in personalized products, so enabling customers to place personalized orders can help you generate more sales. One way to do this is to sell all of your merchandise in-store, but dedicate your website to custom orders.

Your customers can mix and match designs, materials, and colors to come up with an item that suits their preferences. NikeiDis a popular website where sneakerheads can create custom shoes. Build-A-Bearallows kids to build a personalized stuffed toy.

3. Launch A Make-Your-Own-Offer Site

You might be losing countless sales every day in your brick & mortar store if your shoppers think your prices are too high or can’t afford what you are charging. While prices posted in-store are final, you can be more flexible online. Have a website where customers can name their own price on certain merchandise. This can be instrumental in expanding your customer base.

Enable shoppers to bid on items like eBay. If the bid falls within a certain margin, the item is sold. In caso contrario, the bid is sent to an administrator for approval, and those shoppers are notified if their offer is accepted. Many retailers attest that this strategydrivesvendite,especially if shoppers order multiple items. Websites likeGreentoe e Heaven’s Gate Home and Garden hannofound success using this strategy.

In order to make a bid, require customers to provide their email address. That way, you can send follow up updates and promotions. Even if the strategy doesn’t generate tons of revenues, it turns your website into a lead capturing machine.

4. Create A Sale Alert Website

97 percent of shopperstry to find deals when they shop, e 7 in 10 shoppersbelieve that they will get better deals online than in the store. So a website dedicated to alerting customers when an item of choice goes on sale is likely to get a lot of visitors. Instead of selling directly, you can feature your products online. Shoppers can click on a product they like and receive a notification when the price drops. Quindi, they can find the nearest store location to purchase the item.

For this strategy to be effective, customers should not have to wait so long that they forget that they’ve signed up for a sale notification. Consider waiting for 10 – 20 people to sign up for an alert on a product, and then put it on sale. From there, you can perform additional testings to find the most optimum waiting time. Websites likeShopStylerely on sending sales alerts to customers to drive sales.

5. Run a Pre-Order Website

As a retailer, you place orders in advance to your suppliers, which means you already know what you’ll be selling weeks or months from now. You can leverage this information by creating a website solely for items that you’ll be selling in the future that customers can pre-order. Many customers enjoy the treasure hunt experience, and this is something that you can satisfy by featuring products that are not yet available in-store.

Tech and gaming industries have been leveraging the pre-order approach. Fonte: Apple

Gadget and gaming sellers have been using this strategy for years, and it appears to be working. 1 in 5 gamerspre-order video games on a regular basis.

To encourage customers to commit, you can throw in sweeteners like discount coupons which can be redeemed on their next visit. You can also guarantee a lower price for pre-orders, a strategy used and advertised by large e-commerce stores, tra cui Amazon. Inoltre, you can add a functionality that shows the number of users who pre-ordered the same item. Demand creates a sense of urgency and encourages shoppers to complete their purchase.

To top it all off, implementing a pre-order website is very simple. You only need a landing page or a one-page website for each product that goes on pre-order.

Conclusione

You don’t have to be like everyone else if you plan to add an online store to your brick & mortar store. You can add an interesting twist, such as accepting custom orders or pre-orders on your website or transforming your store into a “showroom”. With a little bit of imagination, you can come up with an unconventional online approach that will boost sales and establish your brand as a trendsetter.